Yak Communications / Distributel Communications

Yak: There've been no Internet for 4 days. When I try to reach them over the phone, they put you on hold for at least 45 min, often simply disconnecting after that. When I finally reached them, they try to make me an idiot saying that this is my problem, e.g. bad wiring. Then they make me go through a lengthy process of modem re-initialization, which I've already done many times before calling them. Finally, they admitted there was a "limited" Internet outage in my area and it will be fixed "shortly". It's been two days since then. I've been their customer for several years and this outages happen from time to time, but I not going to tolerate it any longer. Will be looking for another provider. -Al

Yak made me take 2 vacation days off work to wait for their technician... just to be told that they've moved the date to another day or cancelled entirely.

The first time, after waiting 3 hours at a house that is under renovations, I called YAK to ask about their tech and when he would arrive.
I was told by the CS rep that the tech cancelled and that I should have called in to ask if their tech was going to come today (no attempt at calling me to let me know as well as blaming me for the lack of communications). I rescheduled for 2 weeks later where I took another vacation to sit at an empty house waiting for a tech that never showed. This time I called them after 30 mins and was told again that the tech wasn't going to show (didn't bother to tell me AGAIN) and was rescheduled for the 3rd time. Its been over a month since I asked for service to be installed and now the pricing and bandwidth changed from when I had asked for it to new prices that are almost as high as Shaw/Telus.

Terrible service. I will be cancelling after the first month as I've received $5 credit for my troubles (they won't refund the modem if I cancel so might as well take the $5) and going with a company that isn't a joke.

I have been waiting on the phone for over an hour. Today, we can't call out on our phone other than to the Yak Office where you can't speak to anyone, "becaause all the agents are busy helping other callers".
This Company is all advertising and no delivery. I may be a little cheaper but you get so much less for your money.
We've had this service for about two m onths and finally received our first invoice last week for $112.00. We switched to Yak because of high telephone costs.
Boy, were we wrong.
I do not and would not recommend this telephone provider...ever.

With Yak Communications it is not a simple task to move your existing Yak home phone and Yak DSL service to a new address. I am in the process of doing this, it took them 10 days to transfer my home phone service over and I am still waiting for them to transfer the DSL, they tell me that it should be up on the 26th, 12 days after the home phone has become active and 26 days after I requested they transfer both my existing home phone and DSL service over. They refused to transfer the DSL and home phone over at the same time saying they had to do a separate work order to transfer the home phone over and then when the home phone was active they would make a separate work order to have the DSL activated at the new address. I don't see why they just can't do both on the same work order at the same time, it is the same phone line after-all. So assuming they get the DSL up on the scheduled date it will have taken them 26 days to get my DSL moved to the new address which is absolutely ridiculous when Rogers Communications can get your High-Speed Internet up in 3-7 days (unfortunately Rogers cable Internet is not available at my new address or I would have switched to them two weeks ago and Yak would have permanently lost me as a customer).

In all fairness the long delay to switch the home phone and DSL over might be due to Bell Canada who is the one who has a monopoly on owning the phone lines and requires that only Bell Canada technicians work on them. Really if this is the case Yak should sue Bell Canada over their incompetence for the extremely poor technical service.

I've had both Yak DSL and Rogers Hi-Speed Cable in the past here is how they compare:

Yak DSL:

The Good:

- cheap montly rate of approx $36
- unlimited downloads (no data cap)

The Bad:

- 3-5MBps is much slower than cable Internet (but not unreasonably bad)
- when things goes wrong it takes them a day or two to schedule a technician to come over and fix things
- technicians are Bell Canada technicians who cannot follow standard procedure to phone you on your cell phone 15 minutes prior to arrival, cannot be trusted to knock on your door when they arrive to inform you they are there, cannot be trusted to phone saying they will be late even if they are going to be 8 hours late, might show up 8 hours after their scheduled time window for arrival (happened to me once), might take days to fix the problem
- takes about a month for them to setup your home phone and DSL (or 2-3 weeks just to setup the DSL if you already have a home phone line)
- takes them nearly a month to transfer your existing Yak Home Phone and Internet service over to a new address if you move
- it takes them 2-3 weeks to get your DSL Internet up and running

Rogers Communications:

The Good:

- fastest internet, up to 10Mbps if you choose their fastest package, but even the 5-7Mbps is really good
- most reliable Internet service (rarely goes down and if it does is usually up again within 2 minutes. In the event of a problem like a car crashing into a cable box it is usually up in about half an hour)
- when their is a technical problem they can usually diagnose it and often fix it remotely while you are on the phone with them without sending a technician to your home (unlike Yak who must always send a techician to your home)
- professional techical support, arrive when they say they will arrive usually, and even phone you if they are going to be late
- they can have your hi-speed Internet up 3-7 days up from your original request

The Bad:

- more expensive monthly rates ($46 for 30G data limit package)
- they have data limits and charge you much more if you go over the 30G limit which might cost you a lot if you use the Internet in a way that results in you going over their limit

Conclusion:

If you are poor and can live without Internet for nearly a month when you move then go with Yak Communications. Also if you need unlimited data downloads Yak is your only option.

If you can afford $10-20 per month extra for Internet that is much faster and much more reliable with much better technical support and can live with data transfer limits then go with Rogers.

I have Yak home phone and DSL, once you get the service setup it works great, but when I was getting it setup initially and was having problems that required a technician to come to my house I received the worst technical support service I have ever received from any company my entire life. It is not Yak's fault however, it is Bell Canada's fault since they are the ones who own the phone lines. Bell Technicians would schedule an appointment to come over.

They were supposed to phone my number 15 minutes before arrival. They had an 8 hour window that they were supposed to arrive. They would often show up without calling and not bother to knock on my door, instead they would leave a note on my door saying they could not access my unit (when I was sitting on the couch right in front of my door, all they had to do was knock). One technician was scheduled to show up between 8am and 12 noon but did not show up until 8pm that night, nobody phoned to say they were going to be late. I spent three days that I took off work waiting for Bell Canada technicians to show up when they said they were going to show up and they never did. I eventually got my service working and it is working great now but it took the Bell Technicians about a month to get it working properly.

My complaint is about Bell Canada technicians, if Bell Canada is going to have a monopoly on owning the phone lines they need to provide decent service to people who resell the use of those phone lines.

This is one of several letters I sent to YAK. There is never a reply and the worst customer service if you can ever get through to their useless call centre.

Hello,

This is my attempt to obtain some explanation for the inept YAK services. I've tried calling into customer service with no avail!

I've signed up with YAK in October of 2008 from the information provided via mail/pamphlet at my door steps.

Initially the promotion sounded very promising...

I signed up for home high-speed internet and phone service. After literally over ten time trying to obtain information regarding the status of my service, I received via email in December that my phone has been activated. I was very dismayed that high-speed internet in my areas is not available!

BAIT and SWITCH tactics?! your promotions are fishy and seem fraudulent! To aggravate even further, I received my first invoice and called customer service to inquire about the particulars...another 40 minute wait only to be answered by a very green, unknowledgeable and rude agent. With frustration, I asked to speak to the supervisor, which he rudely refused!

I was informed that my initial package of unlimited calling in Canada for extra $5 which I signed up for back in October is not available and that in it's place I will be provided with 500 min.! WHAT THE $#@#!

Meanwhile, your web site YAK.CA still advertises $5 unlimited calling to select countries!

What type of fraudulent telco are you running!

I understand that promotions and packages over time may change however, there is a concept of grandfathering people who signed up on the initial offerings, or at the very least informing of the changes via email or the phone (which you obviously have!)

I expect a prompt response.

If not I will escalate to public authorities and web sites of your tactics!

I totally agree with Desisee. I also was put on hold for 45 minutes to be told I had the wrong extension, they only have three options and cancellation dept. wasn't one of them. I was transfer to the cancellation department. After waiting another 39 minutes to have the live ring with no one at the other end. THAT was it. I called Bell explained my situation and changed my lines back to Bell. I felt like i was swindled. I am the customer, they are the business and they did me no favour. They also haven't answered the email i sent them on Jan 5, 2009. DIMITRI who? [protected] N.York 0004 YAK REP. Does anyone know this guy. I called his number he gave me and I had the wrong number. Imagine that.
BYE BYE YAK.
You are a ### small company with lack of customer services, by reading the above comments looks like to me you have unrealiable customer servives and I will be spreading this to all the people I know.
I have been a Bell customer since I was old enough to have my own phone. I will not be swindled again.

MJ dated Jan 27, 2009

After, as many other trusted Bell customers I decided to switch to Yak, since then it has been nothing but hell, and grief. It began by Yak losting my #, I was without ph services for approx 2 weeks, I had to switch back to bell. I received a call fr a Yak manager (Youef) apologizing, he asked If I would like to have internet only, said I will think about it. In any event, approx 2mnts after I decided to get internet only fr yak. I rec services on Oct/19/08 @ $34.00 per/mnt, however three weeks after I rec an invoice fr Yak requesting payment for my home services. I contacted their poor cust ser, the rep called back and left a voice mail conf my only ser of internet and the hook up date of Oct/19/08... Keep in mind here that Im paying Bell for my home service, but Yak is charging me for the same home services. My next stop is the CRTC. I AM FEED-UP WITH YAK.

i agree with the first statement. i placed and order in july for homephone and internet and no body showed up. A few days later i had a phone like but it was crossed with a Rogers customer. I was basically using someone elses phone line. I called plenty of time to set up different account and nobody showed up to do anyhing. NO SURPRISED AFTER THE 5TH TIME. i finally just settled with the internet when i found that your call rep where putting plans and features on my 'home phone' aswell as my cell phone. THING I DID NOT ASK FOR. they have no clue as to what they are doing and take no fault in there actions. They dont listen and are confusefed and there seems to be no leadership in that place. Not only that, everytime my call was to be escalated to a 'manager' expecting to get a call back, like they said, IT NEVER HAPPENED.

AS FOR CHRIS AND YOUR 'MANAGER' LAUGHING AT THE FACT THAT YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE FED UP WITH YOU SERVICE IS UNPROFESSIONAL. A MANAGER IS SUPPOSED TO BE THE ONE TO LEAD, SET A PROPER EXAMPLE AMONGST YOUR PEERS. IF ANYTHING YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE ONE TO SAY STOP THIS IS NOT RIGHT THAT THERE ARE PEOPLE GETTING CHARGED FOR NO REASON AND HAVE SUCH DIFFICULY ORDERING A SIMPLE SERVICE. ITS SAD AND IMATURE THAT YOU WOULD EVEN ALLOW YOUR EMPLOYEE TO MAKE A COMMENT LIKE THAT WHILE YOUR STANDING THERE AND NOT ONLY THAT YOUR ENCOURAGING IT. YAK WONT BE AROUND FOR LONG. AND IF YOU WORK WITH BELL AND THEY DONT SHOW UP THEN YOU GOING TO TAKE THE HEAT FOR THEM ASWELL. I HOPE THEY DROP THEY YAK ACCOUNT BECAUSE YOUR COMPANY IS ###. :)

Well can you please state the situation because you may have receiving this Bill because you place a lot of calls my Friends cuz yak only charges y0u 5 cents a minutes, so you may have call somewhere . Now maybe you set your self for ebilling .